1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a herbal medicinal composition and a herbal medicinal extract, and a method for preparing the same and, more particularly, a herbal medicinal composition and a herbal medicinal extract for inducing production of peripheral blood stem cells and a method for preparing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Medicinal science has found that stem cells can travel to tissues of human bodies where apoptosis, inflammation, atrophy owing to injury, aging, or necrosis occurs, and that is, finding a new home. In these tissues, stem cells can self-differentiate, develop the tissue, restore necrosis, atrophy, and apoptosis, or attack, inhibit, transform benign and malignant cells with abnormal proliferation. Among various stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are capable of mobilizing from bone marrow to peripheral blood for self-renewal. In other words, at least one of the daughter cells from hematopoietic progenitor cell division has to maintain the characteristics of the mother cell (the undivided hematopoietic progenitor cell), i.e. keeping undifferentiated and being capable of continuous cell division. In addition, the daughter cells can differentiate into various specific blood cells. Hence, in human bodies, HSCs are the fastest cell in division and differentiation and considerably active to complement aging or injured cells everyday so as to keep physiology in the normal balance.
In general, HSCs locate in bone marrow of human bodies, and the number thereof is approximately one percent of total lymphocytes therein. Only a few HSCs will mobilize from bone marrow to peripheral blood, and the number thereof is approximately 0.1 percent of total lymphocytes. However, it is currently reported that HSCs will mobilize from bone marrow to peripheral blood during an increase in the number of leukocytes after the human bodies are subjected to chemotherapy at a high dose. Otherwise, injection of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), a kind of leukocyte growth factor, will stimulate HSCs, and it also can achieve mobilization.
With progress of technology day by day, various malignant cancers are treated by a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Nevertheless, a dose used in radiotherapy or chemotherapy usually has to be limited to prevent injury to the bone marrow of the patient, and thus the efficacy of the therapy also reduces owing to the limited dose. Therefore, some researchers suggest autograft of HSCs. That is, healthy HSCs are aspirated from the actual patient, stored for a while, and then grafted into the patient after radiotherapy or chemotherapy at a high dose so as to restore the hematopoietic function of the bone marrow which is inhibited or injured thereafter.
Based on the ways of obtaining HSCs, autograft techniques are classified into a bone marrow transplant and a peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) transplant. The bone marrow transplant is to directly aspirate bone marrow out of a patient and then proceed with a transplant. The PBSCs transplant is to stimulate HSCs to mobilize to peripheral blood, where HSCs used to locate at an extremely low level, so as to obtain PBSCs by cell isolation, and then proceed with a transplant.
Notwithstanding, because aspiration of bone marrow requires hospitalization and general anaesthesia during surgery, there may be drawbacks such as anesthesia risk, infection, cardio-cerebrovascular or pulmo-renovascular infarction, and post-operation pain (POP). By contrast, aspiration of PBSCs has none of the drawbacks mentioned above, but since injection of G-CSF is required to stimulate mobilization, there may be bone, waist, and chest pain, osteoporosis, lower than average number of platelets, abnormal proliferation of leucocytes to 50-100 thousand (even to several hundred thousand), a possible increase in proliferation of cancer stem cells and abnormal cells to result in a new cancer, relapse of a treated cancer, and risks such as pneumonia, hepatitis, splenomegaly, hemorrhage, rash, illness, or even shock.
Hence, if a related drug able to stimulate mobilization of stem cells can be developed without the risks and symptoms after injection of G-CSF mentioned above, it is more advantageous to PBSC transplant and self-restore of aging or injured cells in human bodies.